romance fiction – red dust to big smoke

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Monthly Archives: July 2013

OMG, tomorrow is July 29th and the last time I wrote on this blog (a post written by ME that is, not a guest) it was June 29th! That is TERRIBLE! I am a total and utter blogger failure.

I wish I could tell you, I’ve been busy writing another book, but two weeks of that time was kids school holidays and I really did nothing much except tweak OUTBACK BLAZE (aka edit the damn thing – but it was so long-winded due to snatching moments of time between school holiday stuff, that it didn’t FEEL like I did much at all). Good news is that is now 6k words lighter than when I first subbed it – trust me, that is a good thing!

In the school holidays we:

Did a fair bit of bush-walking. The kids love it for some reason and it’s quality family time. On one trip to Clackline, which is about an hour and a bit east of Perth we walked to an old Clay Refractory and you cannot believe how mega cool the kids thought this was. Hubby and I were pretty surprised the public were allowed access, cos it looked like it could crumble at any moment, but the kids loved all the clay they found on the floor.

Watched two movies – Monsters University (Oh my, it’s a prequel, I just assumed it was a sequel) and Despicale Me 2. I must admit, I’m pretty fussy about kids movies. I don’t ADORE them all but these two were pretty cute. What’s not to love about minions!

Spent two days in Perth catching up with friends and cuddling one dear friends gorgeous new baby.

Discovered Skylanders!!!! Yes, I succumbed and bought my kids the Skylanders Starter pack for Wii!! I’m a bit of a nazi when it comes to TV and games but during the limited time they’re allowed to play my kids have found a new obsession. Especially His Lordship, who’s happy to read his new Skylanders book from the moment he gets up in the morning until he falls into bed at night.

Now school is back, the first edits of OUTBACK BLAZE have been subbed, and last week I started work on the third book in my BUNYIP BAY series (first will be OUTBACK DREAMS in Oct). Am really looking forward to writing this book. In fact, there’s a lot I’m looking forward to at the moment – the Romance Writers of Australia conf in August, a book out in October and Genre Con in October. Life is good in my little world.

I’m delighted to have fabulous Superromance author, Emmie Dark on my blog today. I’m currently reading Emmie’s latest book JUST FOR TODAY and it is totally delicious! It kicks off with a very sexy one night stand and I’m desperate to finish my edits so I can get back to it. But more about the book at the end of this blog, but right now, I’m going to hand over to Emmie who has a juicy secret to share with you all!!

Take it away Emmie:

Like a few of the writers who’ve visited here to confess their secret life, when Rachael asked me to talk about “what I do when I’m not writing” at first I drew a blank. I’m on deadline right now, so my life seems to consist of writing, cups of tea, writing, sleep, writing and a re-watch of Season 5 of True Blood so I can really enjoy the first few episodes of Season 6. (Because some things are too important to miss out on.)

But I did think of some strange, and kinda secret, thing that I did many years ago.

I was in a movie. This movie, to be precise:

Queen of the Damned was a version of the Anne Rice book, starring the vampire Lestat (arguably made famous—or infamous—by Tom Cruise in “Interview With A Vampire”).

But there was no Tom Cruise in this movie. In fact the movie kind of disappeared without a trace, and its stars have never really risen into the A-ranks. (Sadly, the female lead, a singer making her movie debut, Aaliyah, was killed in a plane crash before the movie was released.)

But it was an amazing experience, being on the very bare outskirts of movie-making magic.

I was just an extra. (And a pretty ordinary extra, as I recall.) A friend of mine had seen the notice calling for participants and convinced me that it’s be an awesome idea to sign up. So we did.

Before heading to the meeting point we’d been provided with, we had to get dressed. No makeup artists or costume designers were provided, just instructions to “goth ourselves”. Black clothes (I have no shortage of those), white face paint, black eye shadow, messy hair, lots of eyeliner, a few crucifixes around our necks. Done!

The scene I was involved in was a rock concert, filmed at an abandoned quarry in Bacchus Marsh. We were to meet at 7pm, be bussed out to the location, work movie magic, and returned back to the city around 6am. (Yes, AM. Filming went all night.)

There were three or four bus loads of people who turned up. I seem to recall a kind of vetting process as we boarded the buses, a quick once-over from a someone wearing a headset and you were sent to one bus or another. It quickly became clear that those people with the most outlandish and elaborate costumes were being sent to one particular bus.

We were not sent to that bus.

At the location, on first sight, it was pretty amazing. Smaller than I imagined. But still pretty cool – a fully formed rock concert stage all set up and ready to go, with flame-shooting columns along the sides. The organisers seemed to think the crowd would be pretty excited by the fact that there was a brand new, never-before heard Korn song played, but that didn’t do much for me.

There was a circus tent set up as our “trailer”. No fish tanks, masseurs and chilled bubbly for us, instead we had hot dogs and popcorn and Coke cans.

Meanwhile out on set, we had to listen to the brand new Korn song about 453,876 times – approximately. Over and over and over. God, how BORING it is to make movies! They don’t tell you that in the weekly gossip magazines.

After a long time of chanting and waving our hands above our heads making devil fingers, my friends and I basically got sick of the whole thing and retired to our “trailer”. We ate hot dogs and drank Coke and talked about the ridiculous and inane things you talk about at 4am when you’re dressed as a goth and stuck in a freezing cold quarry in Bacchus Marsh.

Tragically, you can’t see me in the final film. All that effort with white make up base and black eyeliner was for naught. One of our friends even had a broken arm, and I thought for sure we’d see him waving his cast around. But no – I’ve watched it closely.

And now, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can too.

I honestly have no idea how they pulled together that scene from the disjointed and hectic filming I witnessed. It just makes me all the more impressed by the skills of actors, directors and movie-makers today. And quite happy to remain a popcorn-chomping audience member!

WOW Emmie – that was really interesting. You so have to put that in a book someday. The closest I have been to a movie set is being an extra in a St George’s Bank add. Sadly, I never saw the add, although I did get paid something like $100 for it 🙂

Emmie’s latest SuperRomance release “Just For Today…” came out in June and is available now at Amazon, Booktopia, Kobo, iBooks and any good book store. Check out the blurb below:

Veterinarian Jess Alexander doesn’t have one-night stands with the best man at a coworker’s wedding. But thirtysomething divorcée Jess is definitely in a rut that a night of reckless passion with a younger man just might break. And what better candidate than criminally good-looking Sean Paterson?

Being with Sean is exhilarating. But where could this relationship possibly go? Expecting anything more than a good time from Sean is a one-way ticket to heartbreak. Against her better judgment, Jess can’t walk away from whatever this is…not yet.

about me

Writer for MIRA and Carina Press, Supermarket owner, "retired" English teacher (don't hold that against me), undomestic goddess, proud wifey and mum of three incredibly gorgeous heroes-in-training! Life is good :)